Starting the PhD journey
Whether you are a student or someone who works within or alongside the academic environment, you have surely been told at least once that a PhD is hard, that it’s not for everyone, and that those who do it are either burnt out or end up going crazy. Probably, the person with which we are having this discussion will also add a phrase like “I’m definitely not doing that”. Personally, I’ve always lived surrounded by people who did a PhD, and very willingly at that, starting with my brother. Well, most confirm these rumors, so perhaps it won’t surprise you to know that I too was sure I wouldn’t do a PhD, that it wasn’t for me, and that I would eventually end up burnt out or crazy.
Yet, I was one of the few who managed, through equal parts skill and luck, to secure a respectable position, supported by an MSCA fellowship, in the INT2ACT network, a new project revolving around innovative uses of oligonucleotides. My new journey has now been underway for over a month: this short period is certainly not enough to confirm or refute the general idea people have of a PhD, but it is enough to form a first opinion that will evolve over time. In a couple of years, I’m sure it will be a lot of fun to reread this text.
As for me, this new adventure started quite normally, with the ups and downs you can expect from a new job: getting to know your colleagues, learning to use the lab, handling bureaucracy, and finishing safety courses. All activities that, listed this way, might seem boring, but we often forget that everybody must go through them: they just end up being a brief moment when put into perspective against years of work.
What was particularly exciting, however, was discovering that the professor’s entire group would essentially consist of myself and two other colleagues from the parallel MSCA network, ON-TRACT. Furthermore, one of these colleagues will share the first part of the project with me, and we are both sure this collaboration will be very fruitful, and we’re both sure this collaboration will be very fruitful, even if figuring out our exact roles can be a bit confusing at times. The office is particularly comfortable: we sit alongside several other research groups, creating an energetic work environment that fosters the exchange of ideas, conversations, and proposals for both professional and leisure activities. The different laboratories branch out from the office: ours is shared with a few other office members who immediately proved eager to help us get started, and above all, to share some of the equipment. Yes, because one of the first tasks we had to tackle this month was getting the lab back on its feet before we could actually start working. Before our arrival, it was used by other researchers, who left us an inheritance of shelves full of glassware, reagents, and other scattered pieces. I won’t pretend that doing this was thrilling, but I certainly cannot deny that it was one of the most formative experiences so far: managing a laboratory independently, organizing it to the best of our abilities, and digging through the archaeological finds of past research is something you rarely get to experience in the undergraduate years or internships.
INT2ACT & ON-TRACT Joint Training event
The highlight of this first month, however, was the introductory week, which by an incredible stroke of luck took place in Italy, in the very same region where I come from: Friuli-Venezia Giulia. This not only allowed me to see my family and friends, but also to unintentionally take on the role of “tour guide” for the whole research group. It was a fantastic experience that also gave me just the right boost of self-esteem to work with even greater intensity once I returned to the UK. But this week wasn’t just meant for getting to know my peers and partying; it was an opportunity to receive the kind of top-tier, serious training that only an MSCA network can provide. The week began with an introduction of all the participants—both students, professors, and network affiliates—and then continued with some intensely packed yet fascinating days of lectures and presentations on the scientific work related to the project. Being Italian, I can’t help but say that the best point of those first few days was the presentation by Professor and Senator Elena Cattaneo, one of the Italian excellences and an authority in Huntington disease research and ethical scientific work. Over the following days, it was mainly just us students, and we had a week of lectures that trained us in many of the themes close to Europe’s principles and that should be fundamental for all researchers: working efficiently, ethically, and above all, with respect for the environment. Yet, through all of this, the most captivating aspect of the whole project was that we from INT2ACT were never alone during this orientation; instead, we joined forces and exchanged ideas with the parallel network, ON-TRACT, in a wonderful mix of perspectives, friendships, and collaborations. I believe anyone could confirm that by the end of those few days spent together, we all wished we could share the same office and work alongside each other, but inevitably everyone had to return to their own work—myself and my ON-TRACT colleagues included.
And so, this ends the first update on this adventure. Writing it came very easily to me because one of the best decisions I made for this journey was to start a personal diary, which allowed me to pull together these experiences and lay them out here. I’m sure that when someone pictures a diary, what comes to mind isn’t something pristine, white, and clean, but rather something old and worn, yet filled with experiences, words, and thoughts. Still, every journal starts untouched: it is up to each of us to fill it with those marks, stains, creases, and dog-eared pages that hold our lives. That’s why I chose to start writing it: one day, looking back, I’ll be able to retrace all these stories and remember them with fondness and probably nostalgia. I’ll be able to look at that journal packed with raggedy pages and know it all started from this very first month. And perhaps, I’ll think back to the fact that a PhD is an amazing experience, even if it is hard, it’s not for everyone, and you may come out of it a little crazy